
Capture their likeness and create something beautiful for your wall. By Kate Barber
You’ll need
- Access to a computer and printer to print your photo/s and change the size if needed.
- Canvas or card. We used 8X10 inch canvas (a set of 4 is around $10-$20), but card would also work well.
- Scissors, tape, pencil and paper
- Paint brushes
- A selection of Resene testpots in your choice of colours.
For this project we used:
- Resene Harlequin and Resene Relax
- Resene Hendrix and Resene Ashanti
- Resene Surfie Green and Resene Siesta
Instructions
- Take a photo of your child from their side.
- Upload to a computer and change the size of the photo if needed. When you print out your photo, it needs to take up most of your canvas or card.
- Print the photo and carefully cut out your child’s profile. When it comes to hair, you don’t need to cut around each strand!
- Tape it onto the canvas/card so it doesn’t move.
- Carefully draw around the picture, which will leave you a light outline of your child’s profile on the canvas/card.
- Carefully paint inside the profile and then outside. Remember, if you make a mistake, it’s easy to paint over.
- Allow to dry, then display.

Siblings
We created a profile painting for each of our girls, and they loved getting involved. They each selected a Resene Multi-finish colour that appealed, from which we chose a lighter and darker shade (for instance, Resene Surfie Green and Resene Ashanti belong on the same colour chart). We planned to display the profiles side by side and wanted the colours to work well together. So, we mixed it up: each child had a darker shade from their colour (Resene Surfie Green) paired with a lighter shade from one of their sister’s (Resene Siesta).
Note: because it requires care and precision, this activity is better suited to older children.
For all your DIY projects, big or small, visit your nearest Resene ColorShop. resene.co.nz/colorshops